Truth at last about the male singleton

The girls from the Big Apple started the frank sex talk over the cocktails, now the blokes Downunder have picked it up and run with it.

New Aussie drama Last Man Standing (TV2, 9.30pm) started out last week like an Antipodean version of Men Behaving Badly - there were the beers, hangovers, squalor - but it soon became apparent that this was more like "Male Sex and the City of Melbourne".

Boys can do it, too - that is, be best mates, share the intimate details of their love lives and be supportive, at least until overtaken by lust for their best mate's ex-missus.

The gang at the centre of Last Man Standing are all good, keen Aussie lads, which lends a pungent transtasman flavour to the repartee. At a mate's wedding, the boys stood around with their champers, ogling the women till their eyes bubbled, and discussing their mutual relationship with the bride. (Warning: the following language may offend) "We went home and rooted," was one of the more coy and sensitive observations.

Last Man Standing looks set to explore the etiquette issues that Sex and the City skipped through so lightly. Last week's first episode raised such pressing questions as whether it was permissible for the groom to "go perving" at non-bridal cleavage at his own wedding. What is the down time for a newly-wed male before he can "go window shopping again"? We look forward to more crucial questions in the minefield that is the modern man's quest for love and fulfilment.

The drama's other interesting characteristic is that it seems to be deliberately steering clear of the frenetic pace of most telly dramas, especially crime shows. The writers are obviously fully paid-up members of the Slow Television Movement. Despite the contemporary approach to the subject matter, this is viewing for those who want time out from the blistering pace of modern living. Last week's debut, for example, devoted the entire hour to one wedding.

Otherwise, it had all the elements we've come to expect from sexual comedy-dramas: the flashbacks, the alternative reality multichoice options for reacting to a dilemma, making a meal of the quirks of its characters. It can surely only be a matter of time before it rolls out the Ally McBeal-style fantasy sequences.

The drama feels contrived at times, and the dialogue is often awkward but there's plenty to suggest that it will hit its stride. It has an appealing lead in confused, unhappy Adam (Rodger Corser), who treated us to the best bad dancing on telly since Elaine's famous eye-watering gyrations on Seinfeld. Zoe, played by Kiwi actress Miriama Smith is also sympathetic.

Another achievement of note: this must be the first Aussie drama which actually has New Zealand characters and mentions its transtasman cousin in tones free from derision. This country seems to have finally made it into the Aussie mindset as a viable lifestyle option.

More significantly, Last Man Standing features that rarest creatures in fiction or on screen - the fretful male singleton. Despite the larrikin locker room talk, this is indeed refreshing. Such desperation is usually the preserve of thirtysomething career women. Truth at last.